Mythical Mermaid Face Painting Designs with Rasiha Kavaklidere

Mermaids are a face painting favorite — but how do you deliver a magical, wow-worthy look when you have a long queue and only a few minutes per face? In this facepaint.com webinar, UK artist Rasiha Kavaklidere shared three quick, on-the-job mermaid designs built around rainbow color, glitter, and easy freehand details that any face painter can master.

About Rasiha Kavaklidere

Rasiha is the artist behind Rasiha's Face & Body Art, based in the UK, with more than fourteen years of professional face painting experience. She's known for a colorful, approachable style and a simple philosophy: she only uses products she genuinely believes in. For this session she brought along her daughters, Senia and Delara, as her models — and plenty of hints and tips for painters at every level.

Products Rasiha Used

Want to recreate these looks? Here are the key products from this class, all available at facepaint.com:

• TAG Aussie Sunset split cake — rainbow sponge base for the Tropical Mermaid
• TAG Sherbet Fizz split cake — softer rainbow base for the second design
• Diamond FX Essential White — teardrops, highlights, and fine line work
• Amerikan Body Art Liquid Bling (Glazier Blue & Gold) — gem-like accents
• VIVID Glitter in an aurora shade — dusted onto damp paint for instant dazzle
• Global Body Art Petal Brush – Full Bloom — layered petal flowers
• BAM Stencils Mermaid Tail Stencil (#1410) — quick scale texture on the tail
• Paint Pal filbert and Loew-Cornell floral round brushes — shells and line work

Design 1: Tropical Mermaid

Rasiha started with a sponged rainbow base, misting the sponge so it was damp but not soaking. She dabbed color from the center outward for a clean round edge, carried it down the bridge of the nose, then lifted it onto the eyelids and cheekbones. While the paint was still damp, she dusted on glitter so it clung to the surface.

Next came a mermaid silhouette stencil in black — a fast way to create an instant wow factor — followed by one-stroke florals framing the eyes. She finished with white teardrops, a few fine liner flicks, and a scatter of liquid bling to make the whole design pop. Total time on the job: about three minutes.

Design 2: Rainbow Shell Mermaid

For her second model, Rasiha used the same rainbow-base approach in fresh colors, adding an iridescent glitter for a pearly finish. This time she leaned into flowers, building petals with a dedicated petal brush loaded with white and pink, then sharpening the shapes with a floral round brush that moves from thick to thin in a single stroke.

A handful of white dots gave the look a pearly, mermaid-y shimmer, and blue liquid bling added "gems" across the design. It's a great example of how a few simple shapes layer up into something that reads as detailed and polished.

Design 3: Aqua Mermaid Tail

The final look answered a popular request from the audience: a tail. Rasiha sponged purples, teals, and white into a soft V-shape, dusted on glitter, then used the BAM mermaid tail stencil to lay down quick scale texture. She built the fin with looping strokes, added petal-brush detailing, and highlighted the upper edges with white pulled downward — the same principle behind clean highlight lines on many designs.

A final touch of gold liquid bling tied it together. Purples and golds, as Rasiha put it, are always a winning mermaid combination.

Why These Designs Work

What ties all three looks together is speed and repeatability. Rasiha's approach shows how a rainbow base, a stencil, and a few confident brush strokes can produce a full mermaid design in just a few minutes — exactly what you need in a busy face painting queue. If you enjoy learning from working artists like this, keep an eye on our upcoming face painting classes and webinars.